James A. Rhodes State College

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The Search Tool

The Search tool is a search engine that searches only your class.  Access the Search tool by clicking its icon (shown at the top of this page).  You should immediately see a screen similar to the one shown below.

Type a term or keyword in the textbox on the right and then choose on the left where WebCT should look for that term.  WebCT is designed to search through pages in content modules and discussion (bulletin board) articles.  You can alternately set WebCT to search in only content module text, the content module's table of contents, headings (as specified in HTML code) of content module pages, or only discussion articles.  Click the Search button to perform the search.

The graphic below shows the results of my keyword "lecture" search.  WebCT creates a link to the instances of the word "lecture."  The first area displays pages where "lecture" is part of the name of a file found in the table of contents for a content module.  The second area displays the results where the text on the page has the word "lecture."  The bottom area displays the results where there is a discussion article (bulletin board posting) that contains the word lecture.  Notice that this tool is not letter case sensitive.  Although "lecture" was typed in lowercase letters, WebCT brought back results in both uppercase and lowercase letters.

Each result is displayed as a link.  Users click the link to display the page or specific discussion posting.  WebCT then opens a new window to display, leaving the original search screen open in the back.  After reading the information, the user can close the front window to return to the search screen and view more results.